A pointing device is a common component of a computer system by which an operator can control the computer using its graphical user interface (GUI). Various pointing devices have been developed over the years including joysticks, trackballs, mechanical mice, lightpens, and more recently optical mice for this purpose. In addition there are various types of digitizing tablets which typically employ a stylus.
The main goal of these pointing devices is to translate the motion of an operator's hand into signals that the computer can use. This is accomplished by displaying a cursor on the screen of the computer's monitor with the cursor moving in response to the user's hand movement. Commands that can be selected by the user are typically keyed to the location of the cursor. The desired command can be selected by first placing the cursor, via movement of the pointing device, at the appropriate location on the screen and then activating a button or switch on the pointing device.
Positional control of cursor placement on the monitor screen was initially obtained by mechanically detecting the relative movement of a joystick or a mouse with respect to a fixed frame of reference, which for a mouse could be the top surface of a desk or a mouse pad. A common technique is to use a ball inside the mouse which in operation touches the desktop or other surface and rolls when the mouse moves. Inside the mouse there are two rollers which touch the ball and roll as the ball rolls. One of the rollers is oriented so that it detects motion in a nominal X direction, and the other is oriented 90 degrees to the first roller so it detects motion in the associated Y direction. The rollers are connected to separate shafts, and each shaft is connected to a separate optical encoder which outputs an electrical signal corresponding to movement of its associated roller. This signal is appropriately encoded and sent typically as binary data to the computer which in turn decodes the signal it receives and moves the cursor on the computer screen by an amount corresponding to the physical movement of the mouse.
More recently, optical navigation techniques have been used to produce the motion signals that are indicative of relative movement along the directions of coordinate axes. These techniques have been used, for instance, in optical computer mice to replace conventional mice and trackballs, again for the position control of screen pointers in windowed user interfaces for computer systems. Such techniques have several advantages, among which are the lack of moving parts that accumulate dirt and that suffer from mechanical wear and tear.
Motion in a system using optical navigation techniques is measured by tracking the relative displacement of a series of images. First, a two dimensional view of an area of the reference surface is focused upon an array of photo detectors, whose outputs are digitized and stored as a reference image in a corresponding array of memory. A brief time later a second image is digitized. If there has been no motion, then the pattern of the image obtained subsequent to the reference image and the pattern of the reference image are essentially identical. If, on the other hand, there has been some motion, then the pattern of the subsequent image will have been shifted along the axis of motion with the magnitude of the shift of the pattern of the image corresponding to the magnitude of physical movement of the array of photosensors. The optical mouse used in place of the mechanical mouse for positional control in computer systems employs this technique.
In practice, the direction and magnitude of movement of the optical mouse can be measured by comparing the pattern of the reference image to a series of shifted versions of the pattern of the second image. The shifted image corresponding best to the actual motion of the optical mouse is determined by performing a cross-correlation between the reference image and each of the shifted second images with the correct shift most likely providing the largest correlation value. Subsequent images can be used to indicate subsequent movement of the optical mouse using the method just described. Optical navigation sensors operate by obtaining a series of images of an underlying surface. This surface has a micro texture. When this micro texture is illuminated, an image is obtained for comparison and movement detection.
Another recent device is the touchpad which was originally developed for use with laptop computers. Touchpads are sensitive to the touch of a user's finger. They permit a user to move a cursor on the computer screen merely by moving a fingertip across the surface of the touchpad. The presence of the user's finger is detected by an array of capacitive sensors arranged in a grid beneath the surface of the touchpad. Navigation of the cursor on the computer screen operates via capacitive coupling of the user's finger to the array of sensors. The user's finger slides over a sealed surface under which lie two layers of fine electrical conductors that are arranged in a grid and that create a surface electrical field. Touching the surface with a fingertip distorts the electrical field at that spot. The touching fingertip can be located by scanning the grid and sensing the strength of the distortion on each conductor. This technology, which is a form of capacitive-sensing, is referred to as field distortion sensing. Direction of the On Screen mouse or cursor is directly effected by movement of a person's fingertip on surface of the touchpad. Supporting software allows for customizing the acceleration of the mouse and for assigning mouse “click” and “drag-lock” functions as well. The size of such touchpads varies depending on manufacturer and model. Some are as small as a 2 inch by 2 inch rectangle.